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PI Backup 4.0 - User Guide and FAQ
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To use PI Backup
- Run PI Backup and click on the Backup button.
- Select the drive to back up to. We would ALWAYS recommend that you back up to the A: drive and that the Path field is clear.
- Select whether you want to back up to a standard high density 1.44MB floppy or the new LS120 129MB one (obviously, you have to have one of these drives in place to be able to select this option).
- If you want to back up to an Iomega Zip or Jazz drive or a local or network hard drive, select Other Drive and put in the particulars.
- Ensure Compress Data Files is ticked.
- Click Start and you will be told how many clean, freshly formatted disks you will need for this session.
- Put in disk one of the disk set and click Continue.
- PI Backup will compress and copy all your PI 2.5 data and image files onto the floppy disk set, keeping you fully informed of what it is doing as it progresses.
- On completion, exit PI Backup..
Notes:
- PI Backup is a dedicated data backup module. In other words, it is not intended for general backing up like MS Backup. It backs up data and image files of PI and only PI's data and image files.
- If you are running Professional Investigator on a network, you should NOT run PI Backup until everyone has exited the program.. Basically, you cannot backup files that are still 'open' - being used.
- Every time a back up is carried out a unique Set Number is allocated and stored on each floppy in the disk set. When restoring, you can click on the Disk Info button to see the Set Number, Disk Number, Date of Back Up etc. If you insert a disk from the wrong set or out of sequence in the right set, you will be warned accordingly.
- In the case of wrong Set Number, you also have the option to 're-synchronize' set numbers. This covers the situation where possibly the very latest disk set is lost or corrupted. PI Backup will still after a suitable pop-up message, allow you to continue with the Restore. Re-synchronizing means that the stored Set Number will be made the same as the set currently being restored.
- To keep multiple backups on the same disk (such as with a ZIP or other large capacity drive) you should save each backup set into its own directory. If a directory is not found during back up there will be a prompt: "Do you want to create this directory?". Naming each directory with the date of backup (A:\011098) would simplify things in this situation.
- Where multiple disks are required (typically where drive A and floppies are being used) each disk will have a Back Up file with a filename composed of the disk number + .BKP
- Disks can be reused easily because previous BKP files will be automatically deleted.
- To cope with the Disaster Scenario where even the PI Backup Configuration File (CFG.TPS) has been destroyed or corrupted, PI Backup will ask you if you want to create a new CFG.TPS and points out that the Set Number will be reset to one.
- A log is kept of each backup set and the files contained within it. This can be used for selective Restores.
- The date and time of the most recent backup is displayed on the program's main window title bar.
To Restore a Backup
- Run PI Backup and click on the Restore button.
- Select the drive to use (restore from). Obviously, it must be the same or similar drive to the one that you backed up on.
- Select whether you want to back up to a standard high density 1.44Mb floppy or the new LS120 129MB one (obviously, you have to have one of these drives in place to be able to select this option).
- If you want to restore from an Iomega Zip or Jazz drive or a local or network hard drive, select Other Drive and put in the particulars.
- Usually do not select Let me select which files to restore because you want to restore the ENTIRE backup you took.
- If you are restoring into the original location (i.e. from where you backed up originally), you need not tell PI Backup where to restore the files to. If you want to restore them to a different drive or folder, click on the Restore TO tab and fill in the particulars.
- Place the disk in the drive.
- Click Disk Info to find out what is on that disk.
- If everything is OK, click Start and you will be kept fully informed as the restore progresses.
- If your backup spanned more than one disk, you will be asked for each disk as the restore progresses.
- Don't worry, you cannot put in a disk in the wrong order, PI Backup will tell you if this happens so that you can correct it.
- On completion, exit PI Backup.
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